“The Gift and the Commons: Creativity and the Public Good”

Lewis & Clark, Templeton Campus Center, Council Chambers

The Gift, Lewis Hyde’s groundbreaking study of creativity, explores the meaning of art in a market-driven society. Hyde asks questions central to the lives of artists as well as teachers and others who serve the public good: How do we discover work that satisfies beyond financial compensation? What are our norms for reciprocity and how do gifts create bonds in communities? Hyde’s current project extends these questions to the realm of the “cultural commons” – “that vast store of unowned ideas, inventions, and works of art we have inherited from the past, and that we continue to create.” As we debate “intellectual property,” cultural “piracy,” and what counts as shared “cultural literacy,” these issues take on renewed urgency.

Please also consider joining us for a two-day course with Lewis Hyde on Saturday-Sunday, February 6-7.